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Description

I find the Underworld to be an incredible place, despite how it baffles me so. Many of my expeditions have the goal of answering certain questions and obtaining new knowledge, but there are times I come back still confused or with even more questions. The Underworld is one of those places, but it is one of the special few where I am actually thrilled to be so lost. Every tunnel leads to some new oddity, every creature studied and explored creates new thoughts and theories! Then you take what you learn and compare it to the surface world, which leads to a whole slew of questions! There is truly no end to my work, and a part of that excites me. What will I find next? What epiphany will come from this journey? Nobody knows, but the only way to get a hint is to charge out into that wilderness and find it yourself! I am rambling again, so lets go back to the Underworld. What I was getting at is that....well....there's some weird stuff down there. Biomes that seem impossible in such confined spaces, creatures whose anatomy and lifestyle challenges my theories on how life functions. There are indeed strange things upon the surface, but down here it seems all the oddity has been compacted into these tight tunnels and secluded caverns. Since there is less space, it means there is no room for filler, so only the weird get to survive! Well, that is what it seems. A good example can be found in the species I aim to talk about: The Vetulyk.

What is a Vetulyk? They are a species found down in the Underworld, who live and feed in the many tunnels and caverns. They have four pairs of boneless limbs, which help them walk over uneven ground and scale rocky slopes. Their body is covered in thick plating, which sprouts some serious pointy bits! This spike studded armor allows them to survive some serious damage, be it by predator or falling rocks. If an attacker is their current problem, they deal with them by using a club tipped tail that can crack bone and shatter skulls. This is a decent explanation of their appearance, but does it really answer what they are? Not really, and the reason is because I really have no clue what they are. Normally I could tell you if they are mammals, fish, reptiles, arthropods and the sort, but I have come to no real conclusion on what these things are even related to. You may say that their boneless limbs and armored hides seem to point at some kind of insect or crustacean, but it isn't that easy! Dissections have found a strange flexible structure along its back that some have compared to a spinal column, which would mean it isn't some insect. But this bizarre thing hasn't really been figured out or classified, so is it really related to the spine? No clue! And even if it was some relative to this structure, then what? What do we compare it to then? It ain't a mammal, I will tell you that! This is the confusion we have to deal with here, and why figuring how everything fits together can be a real pain. For now, the Vetulyk are their own weird little thing (I guess "little" might not be the best word)!

So this armored "thing" lives in the Underworld, and can be found in a variety of ecosystems. Their more widespread population is possible because Vetulyk eat one thing and one thing only: rocks. The species has been nicknamed "Rock-Eaters" by the locals, which is in no way clever. Watch one in action and you will see how obvious this name is, as Vetulyk spend a whole lot of time just gnawing on rocks, boulders and the occasional wall. Their mandibles are like a series of beaks that chip and scrape away at the hard surface, breaking it down bit by bit. Smaller rocks are taken into the mouth and crushed, and all manners of stone, ore and mineral wind up as dust and shard within its throat. As it carves and crushes, the dusty mixture is swallowed and fed into its incredibly intricate digestive system. It appears that feeding off of rock is a difficult process, and you can see that with the amount of organs and parts needed for this creature to survive. These things are bigger than cows, and yet most of the space inside that armor is taken up by its digestive system! All the other organs are practically shoved aside to make room for it! Another part of this complex system is the row of "eyes" that run down its body. In truth, these are all orifices used to excrete and expel waste, spitting out the junk as it breaks down its meal. Think of it like how miners collect and refine ore: first you have to dig through a ton of rock to find the right stuff, then you take it out in chunks, then break that down and break it down again. It takes so much to get so little and that is how their body works! Along each stage of digestion, they spit out the worthless stuff as dust and chalky gobs, and then send the goods to the next part for further refinement. It is a long process, and one that doesn't get much out of it. It is said that they are called "Rock-Eaters" because they devour stone, but the name is also given to them because they do nothing else. This system is very inefficient and the food is very lacking, so they need to eat a ton of it to properly feed themselves. As a result, they just constantly eat. All day and every day! It is believed that they don't even sleep, instead switching into a slower behavior that allows them to rest and chew at the same time!

Thinking about how these creatures are geophages brings to mind Rock-Eaters of the surface: Trolls! Those brutes feed exclusively on rock, but they appear to have a more active lifestyle. How can this be? Looking at the two digestive systems shows that both are quite different from one another. The troll's system has complexities but not near the level of the Vetulyk, and it doesn't take up as much of the body. Some may immediately suggest the two are related, but there is no real link, save for the fact they eat rock. Guessing relations by diet is a foolish idea, as dryads, humans and giant ants are omnivores but I certainly wouldn't say we are all related! I think instead it is a converging of designs, and the trolls have found a more simple and efficient system. Perhaps the Vetulyk are much older and have to work with more primordial parts. It is hard to say, but it is interesting to ponder.

With their diet being nothing but rock and mineral, the Vetulyk have received the interesting side effect of being pretty much inedible. Their meat is poisonous to many and worthless to others, causing them to have very few predators. For the rare beast that can eat them, they will find it difficult to obtain with that thick armor and hefty club. Honestly, this weaponry and nasty flesh is probably the reason these creatures have lived for so long with such a lacking diet. With no pressure from other animals and their world being literally made out of food, they can easily prosper. Even demons have no use for their meat, though they have a liking for that armor. When Vetulyk is hunted, it is solely for those plates of theirs. The flesh is either ground up to be used for fertilizing crops or taken as an offering to Alauticus. Due to their diet and similarities to the Core Dwellers, it is believed that these creatures have a connection to the God of Stone. Some suggest they are the offspring of the Core Dwellers, left behind after these great carvers were taken back to the realm of the Gods Below. These offerings of flesh are what allowed me to get an in depth look of their anatomy! I got to see a group of hunters bring one down and harvest the plates, leaving the exposed flesh and organs. Before they carted the useless meat to the nearest temple, I got a chance to cut it open and see this complex digestive system myself! It was thrilling to see! I even got a sketch of the whole layout, with incredible detail! My guides helped me fill in any gaps, despite their confusion over my excitement. I am so proud of that drawing that I wanted to put it in my book, but Eucella refuses! She won't even look at it! Unbelievable! I am pretty sure it is because she doesn't fully understand its sheer complexity and purpose, so she hides her ignorance by burying my genius! I have tried to explain all this to her in full detail, to really hammer home how incredible this all is but she won't hear it! She just starts retching and gagging when I talk about it! I don't understand it! Even when I go and buy her dinner to butter her up, she gets angry when I bring up the bile ducts and digestive discharges! It is all important to the big picture! How am I supposed to fully explain this intricate system without mentioning the mucous sheath?!

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Lets take a quick trip to the Underworld and mash some prehistoric creatures together! As usual!

Description

I find the Underworld to be an incredible place, despite how it baffles me so. Many of my expeditions have the goal of answering certain questions and obtaining new knowledge, but there are times I come back still confused or with even more questions. The Underworld is one of those places, but it is one of the special few where I am actually thrilled to be so lost. Every tunnel leads to some new oddity, every creature studied and explored creates new thoughts and theories! Then you take what you learn and compare it to the surface world, which leads to a whole slew of questions! There is truly no end to my work, and a part of that excites me. What will I find next? What epiphany will come from this journey? Nobody knows, but the only way to get a hint is to charge out into that wilderness and find it yourself! I am rambling again, so lets go back to the Underworld. What I was getting at is that....well....there's some weird stuff down there. Biomes that seem impossible in such confined spaces, creatures whose anatomy and lifestyle challenges my theories on how life functions. There are indeed strange things upon the surface, but down here it seems all the oddity has been compacted into these tight tunnels and secluded caverns. Since there is less space, it means there is no room for filler, so only the weird get to survive! Well, that is what it seems. A good example can be found in the species I aim to talk about: The Vetulyk.

What is a Vetulyk? They are a species found down in the Underworld, who live and feed in the many tunnels and caverns. They have four pairs of boneless limbs, which help them walk over uneven ground and scale rocky slopes. Their body is covered in thick plating, which sprouts some serious pointy bits! This spike studded armor allows them to survive some serious damage, be it by predator or falling rocks. If an attacker is their current problem, they deal with them by using a club tipped tail that can crack bone and shatter skulls. This is a decent explanation of their appearance, but does it really answer what they are? Not really, and the reason is because I really have no clue what they are. Normally I could tell you if they are mammals, fish, reptiles, arthropods and the sort, but I have come to no real conclusion on what these things are even related to. You may say that their boneless limbs and armored hides seem to point at some kind of insect or crustacean, but it isn't that easy! Dissections have found a strange flexible structure along its back that some have compared to a spinal column, which would mean it isn't some insect. But this bizarre thing hasn't really been figured out or classified, so is it really related to the spine? No clue! And even if it was some relative to this structure, then what? What do we compare it to then? It ain't a mammal, I will tell you that! This is the confusion we have to deal with here, and why figuring how everything fits together can be a real pain. For now, the Vetulyk are their own weird little thing (I guess "little" might not be the best word)!

So this armored "thing" lives in the Underworld, and can be found in a variety of ecosystems. Their more widespread population is possible because Vetulyk eat one thing and one thing only: rocks. The species has been nicknamed "Rock-Eaters" by the locals, which is in no way clever. Watch one in action and you will see how obvious this name is, as Vetulyk spend a whole lot of time just gnawing on rocks, boulders and the occasional wall. Their mandibles are like a series of beaks that chip and scrape away at the hard surface, breaking it down bit by bit. Smaller rocks are taken into the mouth and crushed, and all manners of stone, ore and mineral wind up as dust and shard within its throat. As it carves and crushes, the dusty mixture is swallowed and fed into its incredibly intricate digestive system. It appears that feeding off of rock is a difficult process, and you can see that with the amount of organs and parts needed for this creature to survive. These things are bigger than cows, and yet most of the space inside that armor is taken up by its digestive system! All the other organs are practically shoved aside to make room for it! Another part of this complex system is the row of "eyes" that run down its body. In truth, these are all orifices used to excrete and expel waste, spitting out the junk as it breaks down its meal. Think of it like how miners collect and refine ore: first you have to dig through a ton of rock to find the right stuff, then you take it out in chunks, then break that down and break it down again. It takes so much to get so little and that is how their body works! Along each stage of digestion, they spit out the worthless stuff as dust and chalky gobs, and then send the goods to the next part for further refinement. It is a long process, and one that doesn't get much out of it. It is said that they are called "Rock-Eaters" because they devour stone, but the name is also given to them because they do nothing else. This system is very inefficient and the food is very lacking, so they need to eat a ton of it to properly feed themselves. As a result, they just constantly eat. All day and every day! It is believed that they don't even sleep, instead switching into a slower behavior that allows them to rest and chew at the same time!

Thinking about how these creatures are geophages brings to mind Rock-Eaters of the surface: Trolls! Those brutes feed exclusively on rock, but they appear to have a more active lifestyle. How can this be? Looking at the two digestive systems shows that both are quite different from one another. The troll's system has complexities but not near the level of the Vetulyk, and it doesn't take up as much of the body. Some may immediately suggest the two are related, but there is no real link, save for the fact they eat rock. Guessing relations by diet is a foolish idea, as dryads, humans and giant ants are omnivores but I certainly wouldn't say we are all related! I think instead it is a converging of designs, and the trolls have found a more simple and efficient system. Perhaps the Vetulyk are much older and have to work with more primordial parts. It is hard to say, but it is interesting to ponder.

With their diet being nothing but rock and mineral, the Vetulyk have received the interesting side effect of being pretty much inedible. Their meat is poisonous to many and worthless to others, causing them to have very few predators. For the rare beast that can eat them, they will find it difficult to obtain with that thick armor and hefty club. Honestly, this weaponry and nasty flesh is probably the reason these creatures have lived for so long with such a lacking diet. With no pressure from other animals and their world being literally made out of food, they can easily prosper. Even demons have no use for their meat, though they have a liking for that armor. When Vetulyk is hunted, it is solely for those plates of theirs. The flesh is either ground up to be used for fertilizing crops or taken as an offering to Alauticus. Due to their diet and similarities to the Core Dwellers, it is believed that these creatures have a connection to the God of Stone. Some suggest they are the offspring of the Core Dwellers, left behind after these great carvers were taken back to the realm of the Gods Below. These offerings of flesh are what allowed me to get an in depth look of their anatomy! I got to see a group of hunters bring one down and harvest the plates, leaving the exposed flesh and organs. Before they carted the useless meat to the nearest temple, I got a chance to cut it open and see this complex digestive system myself! It was thrilling to see! I even got a sketch of the whole layout, with incredible detail! My guides helped me fill in any gaps, despite their confusion over my excitement. I am so proud of that drawing that I wanted to put it in my book, but Eucella refuses! She won't even look at it! Unbelievable! I am pretty sure it is because she doesn't fully understand its sheer complexity and purpose, so she hides her ignorance by burying my genius! I have tried to explain all this to her in full detail, to really hammer home how incredible this all is but she won't hear it! She just starts retching and gagging when I talk about it! I don't understand it! Even when I go and buy her dinner to butter her up, she gets angry when I bring up the bile ducts and digestive discharges! It is all important to the big picture! How am I supposed to fully explain this intricate system without mentioning the mucous sheath?!

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Lets take a quick trip to the Underworld and mash some prehistoric creatures together! As usual!